Event-Based Image Processing Apparatus and Method

1. An image processing apparatus, comprising: a sensor which senses an occurrence of a predetermined event associated with a change in a brightness of one image pixel among a plurality of image pixels, and which outputs an event signal including location information of the one image pixel in response to the sensed occurrence; a time stamp unit which generates time stamp information by mapping a pixel corresponding to the event signal to a time at which the event signal is output from the sensor, wherein the pixel corresponding to the event signal is determined based on the location information; and an optical flow generator which generates an optical flow based on the time stamp information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the optical flow comprises a velocity vector of the pixel.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the optical flow generator comprises: a neighborhood pixel obtaining unit which obtains neighborhood pixels of the pixel; a time difference calculating unit which calculates information related to time differences between the pixel and the neighborhood pixels, using the time stamp information; a distance difference calculating unit which calculates information related to distance differences between the pixel and the neighborhood pixels; and an optical flow calculating unit which calculates the optical flow based on the information related to the time differences and the information related to the distance differences.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the time difference calculating unit calculates that the information related to the time differences is “0” when the time differences between the pixel and the neighborhood pixels are out of a window of a predetermined time range.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the information related to the distance differences comprises inverse numbers of pixel distances between the pixel and the neighborhood pixels.

6. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the optical flow calculating unit calculates a two-dimensional (2D) vector A corresponding to the pixel, using the information related to the time differences and the information related to the distance differences, and performs an operation of dividing the 2D vector A by an inner product value of the 2D vector A, in order to calculate the optical flow.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising: an operation unit which performs an operation with respect to information for a user interface, based on the optical flow.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the information for the user interface comprises at least one of: a first velocity at which an object corresponding to the plurality of image pixels moves in an x-axial direction on a plane parallel to a sensor plane on which the sensor is disposed; a second velocity at which the object moves in a y-axial direction on the plane; a third velocity at which the object moves in a direction perpendicular to the plane; and a fourth velocity at which the object rotates on the plane.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the operation unit comprises: a plane velocity operation unit which performs an operation with respect to the first velocity and the second velocity, based on the optical flow; an optical flow center operation unit which performs an operation with respect to a center of the optical flow, based on the optical flow; a z-axial velocity operation unit which performs an operation with respect to the third velocity, based on the optical flow and the center of the optical flow; and an angular velocity operation unit which performs an operation with respect to the fourth velocity, based on the optical flow and the center of the optical flow.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the plane velocity operation unit performs an operation with respect to an average of the optical flow, for the operation with respect to the first velocity and the second velocity.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the optical flow center operation unit performs a center of optical flow operation, using a location of the pixel and a magnitude of a velocity vector of the pixel included in the optical flow, for the operation with respect to the center of the optical flow.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the z-axial velocity operation unit generates a first vector corresponding to the one pixel, using the center of the optical flow and a location of the pixel, and performs an inner product operation using the first vector and a velocity vector of the pixel included in the optical flow, for the operation with respect to the third velocity.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the angular velocity operation unit generates a first vector corresponding to the pixel, using the center of the optical flow and a location of the pixel, and performs a cross product operation using the first vector and a velocity vector of the pixel included in the optical flow, for the operation with respect to the fourth velocity.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the time stamp information comprises information related to a most recent time at which the predetermined event occurs in each of the plurality of image pixels.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined event comprises at least one of: an event of the brightness of the one image pixel being increased by a value greater than or equal to a predetermined value within a unit time period; and an event of the brightness of the one image pixel being decreased by the value greater than or equal to the predetermined value within the unit time period.

16. The image processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sensor asynchronously outputs an event signal corresponding to a portion of pixels in which the predetermined event occurs, among the plurality of image pixels.

17. The image processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the optical flow generator comprises at least one of: a partial calculating unit which asynchronously calculates velocity vectors of at least one pixel corresponding to the predetermined event signal and neighborhood pixels adjacent to the at least one pixel, among the plurality of image pixels, in response to an output of the predetermined event signal; and a full calculating unit which calculates velocity vectors of the plurality of image pixels at predetermined intervals.

18. An image processing method, comprising: receiving an event signal from a sensor which senses an occurrence of a predetermined event associated with a change in a brightness of one image pixel among a plurality of image pixels, the event signal including location information of the one image pixel; generating time stamp information by mapping a pixel corresponding to the event signal to a time at which the event signal is output, wherein the pixel corresponding to the event signal is determined based on the location information; and generating an optical flow comprising a velocity vector of the pixel, based on the time stamp information.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the generating of the optical flow comprises: obtaining neighborhood pixels of the pixel; calculating information related to time differences between the pixel and the neighborhood pixels using the time stamp information; calculating information related to distance differences between the pixel and the neighborhood pixels; and calculating the optical flow based on the calculated information related to the time differences and the calculated information related to the distance differences.

20. The method of claim 18 , further comprising: performing an operation with respect to information for a user interface, based on the optical flow, wherein the information for the user interface comprises at least one of: a first velocity at which an object corresponding to the plurality of image pixels moves in an x-axial direction on a plane parallel to a sensor plane on which the sensor is disposed; a second velocity at which the object moves in a y-axial direction on the plane; a third velocity at which the object moves in a direction perpendicular to the plane; and a fourth velocity at which the object rotates on the plane.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the performing comprises: performing an operation with respect to the first velocity and the second velocity, based on the optical flow; performing an operation with respect to a center of the optical flow, based on the optical flow; performing an operation with respect to the third velocity, based on the optical flow and the center of the optical flow; and performing an operation with respect to the fourth velocity, based on the optical flow and the center of the optical flow.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon a program which causes a computer to execute a method comprising the operations of: receiving an event signal from a sensor which senses an occurrence of a predetermined event, the predetermined event being an event that a brightness of one image pixel among a plurality of image pixel changes by a predetermined value or more within a unit time period; generating time stamp information by mapping a pixel corresponding to the event signal to a time at which the event signal is output; and generating an optical flow comprising a velocity vector of the pixel, based on the time stamp information.

23. An image processor, comprising: a sensor which receives input image data comprising a plurality of pixels, senses whether a brightness change for each of the respective pixels is greater than a preset value, and outputs respective signals only for a portion of the pixels which have the brightness change greater than the preset value, the respective signals including location information for the portion of the pixels; a time stamper which receives the signals and generates information mapping each of the pixels in the portion of the pixels to a respective time at which the brightness change occurs based on the signals, wherein the pixels in the portion of the pixels are determined based on the location information; and an optical flow generator which generates an optical flow based on the information generated by the time stamper.

24. The image processor of claim 23 , wherein the time stamper stores the information and, when a new signal is received from the sensor, updates the information and discards the previously stored information.

25. The image processor of claim 24 , wherein the sensor performs a sensing operation to sense the brightness change once per microsecond (p).

26. The image processor of claim 23 , wherein the optical flow comprises a velocity vector of each of the pixels in the portion of the pixels.

27. The image processor of claim 26 , wherein, for a given pixel in the portion of the pixels, the velocity vector is calculated using information related to neighboring pixels which are adjacent to the given pixel.

28. The image processor of claim 27 , wherein the information comprises distances between the given pixel and each of the neighboring pixels.

29. The image processor 27 , wherein the information comprises time differences between the given pixel and each of the neighboring pixels.